New Hero: Probius

Since his activation, Probius has always wanted to prove himself. He may be small, but he made a big difference by warping in a critical pylon during the retaking of Aiur. As the bravest of probes, Probius is eager to fulfill his purpose in the Nexus.

Shop

PTR Note: Many of the following changes will not take place in the Shop until the Public Test Realm is brought offline and the patch is officially released to the live version of Heroes of the Storm next week.

Bundles

New Bundles

Terran Probius Bundle – Available until March 28, 2017

Stars of War Bundle – Available until April 4, 2017

Ultimate Stars of War Bundle – Available until April 4, 2017

Removed Bundles

Blades of Destruction Bundle

Ultimate Blades of Destruction Bundle

New Hero

Probius has been added to the in-game Shop

Mounts

New Mounts

Elemental Stag – Awarded for reaching Platinum or above in Hero League or Bronze or above in Team League during Ranked Season 3.

Epic Elemental Stag – Awarded for reaching Master League or above in Hero or Team League during Ranked Season 3.

Battlegrounds

The hero selection pool has been curated to favor non-spell caster heroes since they benefit less from the Bloodlust Buff

Mage Wars

Weekly Brawl quest completion criteria reduced from Play 3 Games to Play 2 Games

Silver City

Now uses Shuffle Pick for hero selection instead of All Random

Developer Comment: : With the release of Single Lane Brawls, we've always wanted to try various forms of Hero selection to create interesting gameplay. We know there are avid fans of the completely Random Hero selection (aka ARAM), so that's how we initially released these Brawls. However, over time, we've also received feedback that a truly Random Hero selection can lead to widely imbalanced team comps, which can contribute towards a frustrating play experience. For example, we've seen some matches where one team has 4 Warriors and is unable to effectively fight against a heavy Assassin comp. Combined with the potential of longer games, we think Shuffle Pick may offer your team a better play experience by applying some balance options through Role and Hero Selection. As always, our endeavor is to create the best gameplay experiences for our players so please continue to provide feedback to us whether this change improved your Brawl experience or not.

Waygate Usage Consistency

The use of Waygates across all relevant maps (Towers of Doom, Haunted Mines, Blackheart's Revenge) has been unified with a common ruleset:

Channels will not be interrupted by taking "normal" damage

Channels will be interrupted by Abilities such as stuns and knockbacks

Shadowflame slows enemy Heroes by 10% for 4 seconds. This effect can stack up to 3 times.

New Talent: Leaden Orb (W)

Enemies hit by Dread Orb are stunned for .5 seconds.

New Talent: Deafening Blast (E)

Enemy Heroes hit by Runic Blast are silenced for 1.25 seconds.

Level 20

The Nether Calls (R)

Removed

Psychotic Break (Passive)

New functionality:

When Cho dies, you gain the effects of Ogre Rage and can continue casting Basic Abilities for 10 seconds.

New Talent: Shifting Nether (R)

Twisting Nether can now teleport Cho a short distance before it begins casting.

New Talent: The Will of Gall (Trait)

Takedowns permanently increase the damage bonus of Ogre Rage by 2%.

Developer Comment: When we were first told about the new event “Two Heads are Better Than One”, we immediately set to work on giving Cho’gall’s talent trees a much needed face-lift. A lot of our Warriors were getting Armor updates in this patch and originally Cho’gall was no exception. After playing with a generic form of it internally, we realized we had a once-in-a-Nexus opportunity to do something very different and seized the moment. The foundation of the Cho’gall rework revolves around their new Traits, Ogre Hide and Ogre Rage, which are the keys to success with the Hero. The potential of Cho’gall should be greater than ever, but you will have to make sure both heads are working together in order to maximize your damage output while keeping yourself alive long enough to keep doing it.

Developer Comment: I’m not exactly sure where this Goblin keeps getting the hoards of gold he needs to bribe the Design team, but sure enough he has done it again. The changes to him started off as quality-of-life fixes but eventually evolved into something of a minor rework. Overall, we tried to even out the power level of a couple talent tiers (including his Heroics), while bringing in a swash of baseline changes in order to make him feel a bit more user-friendly. We realize his win rate is above average in certain MMR brackets (and game modes) and that this may be viewed as a substantial buff to him. However, we felt it was important to bring these changes to our players and are prepared to act quickly if any tweaks are needed.

Warrior

Developer Comment: We’re currently doing a pass on our Warriors, and want to better separate those that are intended to be able to solo-tank for their team, and those who are better identified as bruisers. With Armor coming into the game, we also saw an opportunity to make our Warriors have unique roles for their team so that the strongest or most survivable few weren’t identified and always favored regardless of the enemy team composition. In this patch, we’ve taken a pass at both Arthas and Anub’arak to better embrace their roles as solo-Warriors for their team. They have both received significant changes, largely with the theme of adding control and/or survivability to their kits at the cost of damage. While we know that players enjoy putting out that DPS, we think this is a healthier direction for the game, and should make the decision of which Warrior to bring to a team more meaningful. We’re also hoping that this direction helps push against the trend of it being the correct choice to bring multiple Warriors to a team because some can bring both CC and survivability while also doing as much damage as our Assassins.

Anub'arak

Stats

Spell Armor reduced from 25 to 20

Basic Attack damage reduced from 99 to 95

Abilities

Harden Carapace (W)

Shield amount increased from 300 to 315

Burrow Charge (E)

Cooldown reduced from 16 to 12 seconds.

Added functionality:

Targets hit by Burrow Charge have their Movement Speed slowed by 25% for 2.5 seconds.

Damage reduced from 107 to 96

Locust Swarm (R)

Damage reduced from 66 to 60

Healing reduced from 18 to 17

Talents

Level 1

Extended Spikes (Q)

Removed

Dampen Magic (Passive)

Removed

Assault Scarab (Passive)

Removed

New Talent: Resilient Scarabs (Trait)

Your Beetles have 50 Spell Armor

New Talent: Nerubian Armor (Passive)

Every 8 seconds, gain 30 Spell Armor against the next Ability and subsequent Abilities cast against you for 1.5 seconds.

Level 4

Locust Needles (Passive)

Removed

Level 7

Shed Exoskeleton (W)

Moved to Level 4

New Talent: Subterranean Shield (E)

When you cast Burrow Charge, gain a shield for 5 seconds.

Leeching Scarabs (Passive)

Added functionality:

Also increases the damage of your Beetles by 20%

Level 13

Bed of Barbs (Q)

Moved to Level 4

Damage decreased from 46 to 23

New Talent: Acid Drenched Mandibles (Passive)

Attacking a Hero that is slowed, rooted, or stunned increases your Basic Attack damage by 70% for 3 seconds.

Level 16

Blood for Blood (Active)

Removed

Epicenter (E)

Decrease cooldown reduction from 4 to 2 seconds

New Talent: Debilitation (E)

Enemy Heroes hit by Burrow Charge have their Spell Power reduced by 50% for 4 seconds.

Level 20

Hardened Shield (Active)

Removed

New Talent: Nullification Shield (Active)

Activate to gain 60 Spell Armor for 5 seconds.

Developer Comment: Anub’arak has received some baseline changes and talent tweaks to embrace his role as an anti-caster Warrior. New additions to his kit include a lower cooldown and slowing Burrow Charge, a buff to his Harden Carapace shield amount, and some buffs to his Beetle build. Understandably some players may be wondering why we lowered his Spell Armor when we want him to be an anti-caster, but we felt that 25 base Spell Armor was a little too pointed in countering casters as they have no real options to deal with it when it is on a hero baseline. By giving him these changes, we’re hoping to make him a more well-rounded Warrior while still filling a niche that previously did not exist in our game.

Every 5 seconds, reduce the next Hero Basic Attack by 60%. Stores up to 3 charges.

Level 4

Biting Cold (E)

Moved to Level 13

Frozen Wastes (E)

New functionality:

!Quest: After hitting enemy Heroes 150 times with Frozen Tempest, the Movement and Attack Speed slows of Frozen Tempest last for an additional 1.5 seconds against enemy Heroes.

New Talent: Icy Talons (E)

Increase Arthas’ attack speed by 3% each time an enemy Hero is hit by Frozen Tempest for 1.5 seconds, stacking up to 60%.

Deathlord (Q)

Increase the range bonus on Death Coil from 25 to 30%.

Increase the cooldown reduction from 2 to 3 seconds.

Level 7

Immortal Coil (Q)

New functionality:

Bonus healing now applies to self-casting Death Coil.

Bonus healing reduced from 100 to 50%.

Icebound Fortitude (Active)

Reduced the cooldown from 40 to 35 seconds

Level 13

Trail of Frost (W)

Removed

Frigid Winds (E)

Removed

New Talent: Shattered Armor (W)

Enemy heroes rooted by Howling Blast have their Armor reduced by 15 for 4 seconds.

Frost Strike (Trait)

Slow increased from 40 to 50%.

Biting Cold (E)

New functionality:

Frozen Tempest does 12.5% increased damage per second to enemies, up to 50% bonus damage (over 4 seconds).

Level 16

Embrace Death (Q)

Added Functionality:

Now also affects the healing of Death Coil.

Level 20

Anti-Magic Shell (Active)

New functionality:

No longer provides 100 Spell Armor. Arthas now takes 0 damage from Spells instead and heals for 25% of the damage prevented.

Developer Comment: For a long time Arthas has walked the line between being a Bruiser and a tank, though it was always intended that he be more of a tank as opposed to a bruiser. With Armor in the game, we saw the opportunity to really embrace him being that slow approach of Death that he encapsulated so well in Wrath of the Lich King. Arthas’s crowd control capability and survivability have been significantly increased, and now he should really shine as the Warrior to bring if the enemy team has multiple Melee heroes or those who strongly rely on their auto-attacks. In return for his extra control in teamfights, his damage has been reduced. While he will not put out damage as quickly as before, his ability to kill enemies will now rely much more on how long he can keep them in his Frozen Tempest, as once they’re in it will be very difficult for them to escape without using some kind of mobility.